Manager, Marketing Insights, Front End Innovation

Dole Packaged Foods • Thousand Oaks, CA

1d • $105,000 - $130,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Dole Packaged Foods is a purpose led organization that is a champion of accessible fruit nutrition and builds a brighter future for people through the goodness of fruit. At Dole, our culture is uniquely driven by core Values. Our commitment to these Values transforms our work into a meaningful journey toward a brighter future together. Here, you'll be part of a respectful, inclusive culture that deeply values our colleagues, customers, and global communities. We strive for excellence, empowering each other to confidently overcome challenges, continuously learn, and achieve world-class results. Guided by unwavering integrity, our actions consistently reflect our commitment to always doing what's right, fostering lasting trust and strong relationships. Through a spirit of collaboration, we cultivate positivity, generosity, and genuine teamwork, enabling collective success toward our One Dole Purpose. Our innovative spirit leads directly to meaningful outcomes and business success. As the Manager of Front-End Innovation, you will identify opportunity spaces, scan cultural and category trends, identify consumer needs, assess appeal and market potential, and craft business cases that will inform the short and long-term innovation pipeline. This role provides flexibility to work in a hybrid environment of home and our Westlake Village, CA office. (Hybrid is defined as 3 times per week in the office).

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in insights, innovation, or business development in the CPG industry, with experience in the food or beverage industry
• Proven ability to translate insights into business model implications, with forecasting fluency
• Proven track record of working successfully cross-functionally (Brand, Marketing, R&D, Finance)
• Proficient communication skills, with experience in presenting to key stakeholders and leadership
• Skilled in advocating the intersection of trends, consumer needs, competitive landscape, and opportunities in a meaningful way through business case development
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in category data and consumer research
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (Brand, Marketing, R&D, Finance)
• Ability to synthesize complex data into clear, actionable insights.
• Passionate about a purpose driven career
• Committed to fostering inclusive environments that support employee development/well-being
• Sets clear expectations, encourages innovation, and drives continuous improvement
• Models and coaches towards transparency and integrity in decision-making
• Effectively facilitates cross-team communication and teamwork
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Statistics, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Ability to sit and use the computer for extended periods of time; ability to answer phones and use a variety of office equipment; ability to lift 15 pounds and reach overhead.

Nice To Haves

• Sales Analytics: Knowledge of retail analytics, pricing strategies, and category management
• Consumer Research: Understanding of qual and quant consumer research methodologies
• Vendor Management: Experience working with external agencies or vendors that specialize in ideation and innovation processes

Responsibilities

• Track Trends - Lead landscaping, foresight, and trend scanning to uncover cultural, category, and behavioral shifts that fuel the broader innovation strategy, inspire opportunity spaces, and create a strong funnel of innovation ideas and programs.
• Gather Competitive Intelligence - Monitor top-performing brands, new product launches, and potential competitive threats in current and new categories.
• Synthesize Insights – Distill cultural signals, consumer behaviors, and market dynamics into actionable insight, fueling ideation and informing business cases for innovation projects.
• Manage Innovation Pipeline – Gather and track innovation ideas from different sources in order to generate and refine early concepts, in preparation for screening phase.
• Champion Ideation – Collaborate with internal and external partners to prepare inputs and outputs for ideation workshops
• Size Business Opportunities - Influence and shape early assumptions for business model development, including volume estimates and forecasts.
• Create Business Cases – Use data to identify opportunities for category expansion, new product introductions, and improvements to product assortment using multiple inputs/sources
• Build Stories - Translate insights into compelling narratives and presentations that communicate opportunities to business partners and stakeholders.
• Other duties as assigned

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees